hudson



(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

W. A. HUDSON.

CIGARETTE. 7

No. 587,827. Patented Aug. 10,1897.

(No Model.) I 3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

W. A. HUDSON.

CIGARETTE.

No. 587,827. Patented Aug. 10,1897.

3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

(No Model.)

W. A. HUDSON.

CIGARETTE.

No. 587,827. Patented Aug. 10,1897.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WVILLIAM ARCH HUDSON, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

CIGARETTE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 587,827, dated August10, 1897.

Application filed April 30, 1896. Renewed December 22, 1896. Serial No.616,686. (No 1116661.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM ARCH HUD- soN, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Vashington, in the District of Columbia, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Cigarettes; and I dohereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descriptionof the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to whichit appertains to make and use the same.

My invention consists in the novel continuous cigarette hereinafterfully described, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, whichillustrate one form of machine which I have contemplated usingin themanufacture commercially of said continuous cigarette, and saidinvention is fully disclosed in the following description and claims.

Referring to the said drawings, Figure 1 represents a longitudinalsectional view of a machine adapted to form the herein-describedcontinuous cigarette. Fig; 2 is a top plan view of the cigarette-formingtube, showing the slotted forming-belt and the perforated paper. Fig. 3represents a detail view of a portion of the belt and paper. Fig. 4 is aside elevation of a portion of the machine adjacent to the tuckingdevices. Fig. 5 is a top plan view of the same. Fig. 6 is a sideelevation of the same, taken from the side opposite to that shown inFig. 4. Fig. 7 is a sectional View of the rear portion of the machine,showing a device for perforating the paper web applied thereto. Fig. 8is a top plan view of the parts illustrated in Fig. 7. Fig. 9 is adetail View showing a section of a continuous cigarette adapted to beseparated into single cigarettes by breaking the paper wrapper apart attransversely-weakened portions of the wrapper.

In the drawings, A represents the main frame of a cigarette-machinewhich can conveniently be employed in making my improved continuouscigarette, said frame being formed preferably with two side pieces.Between the side pieces of the frame and extending longitudinallythereof is the formingtube B,,which is supported by means of suitablebrackets or hangers from the side frames. This tube is shown in detailin Fig. 2 and consists for a portion of its length of a cylindricaltube, its rear portion being open and gradually flattened, as shown atb, and provided adjacent to said flattened portion with the usualfolding-lip b for turning one edge of the paper under the other. 6

C represents the folding and carrying belt, which is supported in thisinstance upon grooved rollers C 0*, the shafts of which are mounted inopposite ends of the main frame, the upper side of said belt passingthrough the forming-tube. The belt C is of such a width that when foldedaround the cigarettestem within the forming-tube its edges will be farenough apart to permit the upper tucking-fingers, hereinafter described,to pass between them, and in order to allow the lower tucking-fingers toengage the ends of the cigarettes I provide the belt C with a series ofelongated openings c,disposed centrally thereof and at such a distanceapart that the space between the centers of adjacent openings 0 will beequal to the length of a cigarette before tucking. Any suitable form oftightening mechanism (not shown) may be employed to hold the belt tauton its supporting-rolls. D represents the paper strip, which ispreferably drawn from a roll D, revolubly supported at the rear end ofthe main frame and provided with a spring-actuated tension device (Z, asshown, or other preferred form of tension device. The paper strip, asshown in Figs. 2 and 3, is provided with weakened portions extendingtransversely of the paper at intervals, the distance between twoadjacent weakened portions being equal to the length of a cigarettebefore tucking, so that the portions of the wrapper between adjacentweakened portions will be exactly the length desired for a singlecigarette. I prefer to weaken the paper in this manner .by providing itwith a series of perforations at intervals extending transversely of thewrapper, but the paper may be weakened in other ways, if desired orfound convenient.

When the paper is introduced into the machine, care must be taken thateach line of perforations lies across the center of one of the aperturesin the belt, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The paper is. led into themachine from the roll D, adjacent to the rear beltroller C and above thepath of thepaper, and above the flattened open end of the formingtube Ilocate the tobacco-feeding hopper E,

having a suitable stirrer e and a'contracted delivery-mouth, whichdelivers tobacco upon the paper in a narrow stream and in suflicientquantities to form a continuous tobacco rod or filler. It is of courseobvious that this feeding device could be done away with and the tobaccofed by hand, if desired.

\Vhen the belt is in motion, the paper will be drawn into theforming-tube and folded about the continuous tobacco rod to form acontinuous cigarette or stem. In some instances it is desirable to pastethe edges of the continuous paper wrapper as it is folded about thetobacco rod, and in Fig. 1 of the drawings I have shown a paste-wheel f,eX- tending through a slotted portion of the forming-tube B between theedges of the belt and engaging the overlapping edge of the wrapper, thesaid paste-wheel being supplied with paste by asmallhorizontal roll ffrom a paste-receptacle I7, supported on the main frame. I do not,however, limit myself to any particular form of pasting mechanism, andthe pasting mechanism may be entirely dispensed with, if desired.

Adjacent to the front end of the formingtube B are the. tucking devices,which tuck the ends of the cigarette-wrapper when the machine isarranged to form individual or single cigarettes, as in my applicationfiled December 22, 1896, and given Serial No. 616,684, and in the act oftucking sever the paper along the lines of its weakened portions, thusseparating the stem into individual cigarettes without the use of aknife or cutter. The tucking mechanism is carried by a movable slidingcarriage G, supported upon the side pieces of the main frame andpreferably connected thereto by a dovetailed construction, the sidepieces of the frame being cut away to receive the sliding carriage, asshown. Above the sliding carriage and supported thereby are the uppertucker-shafts H H, extending transversely across the machine andconnected for joint movement in opposite directions by intermeshinggears h and h, mounted upon said shafts H 11, respectively. (See Figs.4, 5, and 6.) Directly beneath the shafts H H are corresponding shafts Hand H respectively, also connected for joint movement in oppositedirections by gears 71 71 which for convenience are located on theopposite side of the carriage from the An operating-lever I is mountedpivotally upon the shaft H and is connected by alink i with an armI,rigidly connected with the shaft II, for moving the upper tuckingdevices, and the said operating-1e ver I is also provided with adownwardly-extending arm 2', adapted to be'engaged by a suitableoperating means. The shaft H is provided with an operatingarm I In thisinstance I have shown a lever I pivoted to the main frame and having apart in position to be engaged by the tuckeroperating device, said leverhaving one end connected with the arm I bya link 2' and its and thelower-tucker shafts, and after pass-1 ing the lever I the said cam 3'strikes the depending arm 2" of the lever I, thereby operating theupper-tucker shafts. The uppertucker shafts are drawn back into theirnor-' mal position, after the cam 7' passes the arm 1" of the lever I,by a suitable spring I, connected in this instance with the link '5,thereby other end connected with a retracting-spring drawing the lever Ibackagainst a buffer or 1 cushion i, which is used to relieve the jar.

The tuckers are shown best in Fig. '1, and consist of the upper tuckersKand K,'mounted, respectively, on theshafts'H and. 1H, and the lowertuckers K K similarly'mounted on the shafts H H These tuckers consist ofcurved arms which when their shafts are rotated are forced into theopposite ends of the cigarette, turning in portions of the paper andforcing them into the ends of the'cigarette. As before described, thelower tuckers' are operated first by thecam 3' to make the first part ofthe tuck, after which the upper tuckers complete the tucking of theends-of the cigarette, as will be readily understood.

As the belt is moved forward continuously, it is obvious that thetucking mechanism must also be moved forward during the tuckingoperation at the same speed as thecigarettestem, so as to avoidretarding the progress of the stem and belt. This is accomplished bymeans of mechanism best shown in Figs. 4 and 5. 0n the drawing-shaft Jis a sprocketwheel J which drives a sprocket-wheel O flof the same sizeon the shaft whichsupports the belt-roller 0 thereby driving thebelt-roller and belt at the same speed as the driving shaft. On thedriving-shaft J, I also secure a cam-disk J (see Figs. 2 and 5,)provided with a series of studs or cam projections J, in this instancethree in number, located in a circle about the shaft J equal in diameterto the diameter of the belt-driving roller C so that the movement of thecams or-studs will be equal to the travel of the belt, and said studsare located a distance apart exactly corresponding to the distancebetween adjacent lines of perforation of the paper. These studs 0r camsJ 3 engage a lug or projection G on the movable carriage G and move saidcarriage forward during the tucking operation at the same speed as thetravel of the cigarette stem and its carrying-belt 0, thus enabling IIOthetuckers to operate upon the stem without moving longitudinally withrespect thereto. In order to allow the tuckers to engage the stem, thetube 13 is provided with slots b b on its lower side to allow the lowertuckers to enter the tube, pass through the openings in the belt, whichwill at that moment register with said slots, and tuck the ends of thecigarette. The upper side of the tube is also provided with similarslots 12 6 which are slightly in advance of the slots 11 19 as the uppertuckers are operated after the lower ones, and will enter the tubefarther along the same by reason of the movement imparted to thecarriage G, aspreviously described. As soon as the tucking operation iscompleted the stud or cam J 3, which is in engagement with the lug G onthe carriage, will disengage said lug and the carriage will be drawnback to its normal position by springs G remaining motionless until thestem has been fed forward by the belt, so as to bring the length ofanother cigarette into position in the tube to be tucked, when thetucking operation will be repeated. It will be seen that at each tuckingoperation the rear tuckers will tear the paper along the line ofperforation and thus separate the cigarette to be tucked from thecontinuous stem. The tuckers will then crimp or tuck the severed ends ofthe cigarette.

If the pasting device previously described is employed and the tuckingdevices are held out of operation, it will be readily seen that acontinuous cigarette or stem, having its wrapper weakened or perforatedat intervals at distance apart equal to a single cigarette, will beformed and delivered from the machine. I have contemplated making thiscontinuous stem in any desired lengths containin g a number ofindividual cigarettes and placing them on the market, leaving it to theconsumer to separate the stem into individual or separate cigarettes. Inorder to make these continuous stems or continuous cigarettes, it isonly necessary to stop the movement of the tucking devices and thereciprocating carriage, when the stem will be formed and will bedelivered from the machine continuously and may be severed in thedesired lengths by hand or in any other desired way. In this instance Ihave shown the driving-shaft provided with movable clutches O and P forsecuring the gear-wheel j and cam-disk J respectively, to thedriving-shaft, and the said clutches are provided with operatingyokelevers 0 and 19, respectively, by means of which they can be thrownout of operative engagement with said gear-wheel and camdisk, so thatthe carriage G and the tuckers will remain stationary.

If it is desired, I may dispense with the use of a perforated belt, suchas is shown in the drawings, and employ a plain belt, in which case thebelt will not extend entirely through the tube, but will leave the tubebefore it reaches the tucking devices and will pass around a suitabledriving-roller C on the driving-shaft, as indicated in dotted lines inIn order to supply perforated paper to the machine, I may use a paperweb which has been previously perforated, as is indicated if Figs. 1 to6, inclusive, or I may provide the machine itself with a perforatingmechanism interposed between the belt and a roll of plain unperforatedpaper, as-shown in Figs. 7 and 8, and perforate the paper as it passesthrough the machine. In these figures, in which L indicates the belt, Lthe rearbeltcarrying roller, and M the hopper, N designates aperforating-roller which is provided in this instance with three knivesor blades 12, provided with serrated cutting edges and separated uponthe periphery of the wheel distances equal to the desired length of thecigarette wrappers before tucking. Beneath the perforator N is a roll N,provided with depressions or recesses to accommodate the knives n. Thisroller N supports the paper and cooperates with the perforating rollerin its operation. Q represents the roll of paper supported at the rearend of the main frame of the machine.

I prefer to drive positively both of the rollers N and N,and in thisinstance Ihave shown the shaft n of roller N provided with asprocket-wheel and driven by a chain 17, from a similar sprocket-wheelon the shaft of the belt-roll L. The shaft '11 of roller N is thengeared to move with the shaft n of roller N by a sprocket-chain "n. sothat the, two rollers N and N move simultaneously and in oppositedirections, as required to produce the desired result. By thisconstruction it will be seen that plain unperforated paper can beemployed and perforated as'it is drawn into themachine.

It is obvious that the continuous cigarette which forms thesubject-matter of this invention can be made by hand and can also bemade by other forms of machine than that which is herein shown anddescribed.

\Vhat I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is V 1. Acontinuous cigarette composed of a rod of tobacco wrapped with a paperperforated at intervals, the portions of said paper between adjacentperforations being of the length of a single cigarette, whereby thewrapper and rod can be separated at the per forations into. separatecigarettes, substantially as described. I p 2. A continuous cigarettecomposed of a rod of tobacco wrapped with a paper weakened transverselyat intervals, the portions of said WILLIAM ARCH HUDSON.

lVitnesses:

L. P. WHITAKER, J. D. KINGSBERY.

